Figuring out what is true in science when researchers are bombarded with information from many different studies is a challenge. A new paper, published in Nature,reveals that the power of meta-analysis in research synthesis over the past 40 years has transformed scientific thinking and research approaches. Meta-analysis has also become invaluable to making advances in many scientific fields, including medicine and ecology.

An international research team including Krishna Veeramah, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University, has performed the first genomic analysis of populations that lived on the former territory of the Roman Empire from around 500 AD. The analysis provides a direct look at the complex population movements during the era known as the European Migration Period. The palaeogenomic study, published inPNAS, investigated early human medieval genomic variation in southern Germany, with a specific investigation of the peculiar phenomenon of artificial skull formation, the origins of which scientists have debated for more than 50 years.

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Can snowstorm totals be predicted better? ProfessorPavlos Kolliascenter/back, and a team ofSoMASresearchers are finding a way to better predict precipitation amounts with new radar technologies. By using new types of radar with current meteorology technology in theRadar Observatory(pictured) they can take an “MRI” of clouds, a high-tech visual of what happens inside clouds that pinpoints precipitation and other features. The observatory is uniquely positioned in the Northeast to test predictions of regional storms and precipitation totals.